{"id":6554,"date":"2012-08-09T21:13:30","date_gmt":"2012-08-10T02:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.net\/?p=6554"},"modified":"2013-08-28T01:48:52","modified_gmt":"2013-08-28T01:48:52","slug":"on-six-songs-of-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=6554","title":{"rendered":"On Six Songs of Me"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Can people&#8217;s lives be measured meaningfully by the music they listen to?  That&#8217;s the question NPR raises in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/blogs\/deceptivecadence\/2012\/08\/08\/158442642\/you-are-what-you-hear-what-your-favorite-music-says-about-you\">an article<\/a> on <i>The Guardian<\/i>&#8216;s &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sixsongsof.me\/\">Six Songs of Me<\/a>&#8221; project which seeks to understand how people identify themselves by the music they listen to.<\/p>\n<p>The six questions&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What was the first song you ever bought?<\/li>\n<li>What song always gets you dancing?<\/li>\n<li>What song takes you back to your childhood?<\/li>\n<li>What is your perfect love song?<\/li>\n<li>What song would you want at your funeral?<\/li>\n<li>Time for an encore. One last song that makes you, you.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That looks easy.  I completed Facebook&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=5811\">30 Day Song Challenge<\/a> about <s>two years<\/s> a year and a half ago&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><b>What was the first song you ever bought?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The first album I ever bought with my own money was Starship&#8217;s <i>Knee Deep in the Hoopla<\/i>.  I wanted it for the lead song, &#8220;We Built This City&#8221;&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"420\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TxGGckAc1rs\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In my defense, I was twelve.  I thought it sounded <i>great<\/i>.  And looking up the song on YouTube was the first time I&#8217;ve ever seen the video.<\/p>\n<p><b>What song always gets you dancing?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>When I did the 30 Day Song Challenge, I suggested New Order&#8217;s &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=R_rhnHpRSXQ\">True Faith<\/a>&#8221; or Information Society&#8217;s &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UPuXvpkOLmM\">What&#8217;s On Your Mind (Pure Energy)<\/a>&#8221; as possibilities.<\/p>\n<p>However, the absolute guaranteed get-me-dancing-behind-the-wheel song is The Cure&#8217;s &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=wa2nLEhUcZ0\">Friday I&#8217;m In Love<\/a>&#8220;:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"420\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wa2nLEhUcZ0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Guess I like New Wave. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p><b>What song takes you back to your childhood?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know what this song&#8217;s title might be, but this is how the lyrics go&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m just a little black rain cloud<br \/>\nHovering under the honey tree<br \/>\nI&#8217;m only a little black rain cloud<br \/>\nPay no attention to little me<br \/>\nEveryone knows that a rain cloud<br \/>\nNever eats honey, no not a nip<br \/>\nI&#8217;m doling around over the ground<br \/>\nWondering where I will drip.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"420\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NitBpJaom5k\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>From Disney&#8217;s <i>The Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>I whistle or hum this song often, and I quote from the scene itself frequently.<\/p>\n<p><b>What is your perfect love song?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The Goo-Goo Dolls, &#8220;Iris.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"420\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NdYWuo9OFAw\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I didn&#8217;t even have to think about this.  There are Elbow songs (like &#8220;Mirrorball&#8221; or &#8220;One Day Like This&#8221;) that are fabulous and superb, yet it&#8217;s &#8220;Iris&#8221; that I think of when I think of love.  It&#8217;s hard to say why, because it&#8217;s more of a feeling than an idea.  Basically, it&#8217;s the song that makes <i>sense<\/i> to me when it comes to matters of the heart.  Listening to it, I realize that it&#8217;s a song of unrequited love, and that&#8217;s very much how my affairs of the heart have been.<\/p>\n<p><b>What song would you want at your funeral?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>This one is very easy, because I&#8217;ve known for a long time what this song will be and I&#8217;ve told people the reason why.<\/p>\n<p>The Beatles, &#8220;In My Life.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>If you listen to the lyrics, it&#8217;s as much a song of nostalgia (John Lennon&#8217;s poem to his hometown of Liverpool) as it is a song of final goodbyes.<\/p>\n<p><b>Time for an encore. One last song that makes you, you.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The Vince Guaraldi Trio, &#8220;Charlie Brown Theme&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"420\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/80ojk1dwbos\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m willing to bet that that wasn&#8217;t the piece of music you thought it was going to be.  The song everyone knows is &#8220;Linus and Lucy.&#8221;  That one&#8217;s sprightlier.  The &#8220;Charlie Brown Theme&#8221; is a little more pensive.  It&#8217;s still jaunty, but it&#8217;s not as exuberant as &#8220;Linus and Lucy.&#8221;  It&#8217;s not as familiar.  That makes it more interesting.<\/p>\n<p>There you have it.  Six songs of me.<\/p>\n<p>And, for a bonus, a song I found while looking for a good video clip for the &#8220;Charlie Brown Theme&#8221; &mdash; &#8220;You&#8217;re a Creep, Charlie Brown,&#8221; a mash of <i>Peanuts<\/i> clips with a choral version of Radiohead&#8217;s &#8220;Creep&#8221;&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ty_nGqPLkTc\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>What are your six songs?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Can people&#8217;s lives be measured meaningfully by the music they listen to? That&#8217;s the question NPR raises in an article on The Guardian&#8216;s &#8220;Six Songs of Me&#8221; project which seeks to understand how people identify themselves by the music they listen to. The six questions&#8230; What was the first song you ever bought? What song<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=6554\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">&#8220;On Six Songs of Me&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[77,216,98,70,217],"class_list":["post-6554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","tag-john-lennon","tag-radiohead","tag-the-beatles","tag-vince-guaraldi","tag-winnie-the-pooh","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6554\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}